How Many Facebook Fan Pages Does One Firm Need?

“…are dipping a toe in the Facebook waters by setting up a Fan Page, a firm account that provides information about the firm and invites other Facebook members to become “Fans” (a designation that costs nothing and serves to indicate support or appreciation for a given company, product or service.)”

The post offers great advice on setting up Fan Pages, like avoiding the firm’s Web site boiler plate when filling out the “About Us” section and including candid photos. However, the one thing the post misses the point on is that law firms are not the only ones that can set up Fan Pages. And when I say law firms, I mean the firm’s marketing department. A Fan Page can be set up by anyone, well at least anyone that’s a fan. So a Fan Page could have been established by that summer associate a couple years back, a firm attorney or even a really zealous client (we can dream, right?).

So the lesson for law firms, accounting firms or other professional services companies: when creating a Fan Page, be sure to do a quick search. You don’t want to create a duplicate page that may be confusing. You also want to make sure that fans are pointed to the correct page, a.k.a. the one that is going to be updated on a regular basis. Most importantly, you want to make sure that your Fan Page doesn’t require approval to become a fan. It should be open and transparent. If it’s not, you might have come across what appears to be a Fan Page but is instead a communication hub for a particular practice or associate class.

A current Fan Page can easily be updated to the “Official Fan Page” by having someone from marketing or IT gain Administrative controls. Once granted, the new admin can update the Fan Page to include personality, such as adding pictures from the firm’s most recent softball game. It’s this touch that really creates fans of the firm anyhow.